The Unspoken Truth Is A Little White Lie

Sometimes it seems like the higher ups keep adding responsibilities to the to do list. And sometimes it seems that they do this because they have nothing else to do. And some of these new responsibilities have literally nothing to do with anything. And they add nothing to the great care that we already give to our patients. 

So, you want an example? Well, I don't want to get myself in trouble. Yet I will give one example here that I think I am safe sharing. We are told that we are to wash ventilators between patients. And this is common sense. But now they added a step. 

Drum roll please!!!

Now we are to wipe the ventilator down for two minutes. And when I'm asked if I do this I say, "Yep!"

I say this even though there is no clock in our storage room. And i say this knowing I do not have a watch. So there is no way possible I can even keep track of time while I am wiping a ventilator. 

Heck, every person is different. And we all clean things at a different pace. And I can't help it if I happen to wipe the entire thing (every spot) in 30 seconds. Why should I stand there wasting another 1.5 minutes wiping over what I have already cleaned? 

But this is how it is when you have large corporations running things. They want everything in every branch to be the same. And so they come up with these little policies that don't effect them but create more things for us to do. It's fine, I suppose, when it's not busy. But, when we're busy, and you finally get a chance to rest, most of us aren't going to waste that 1.5 minutes wiping for no reason. 

And you can take this analogy to a variety of other tasks doled upon the workers in pretty much any business. And we understand. They have to create these tasks so they can monitor how something is improving. They have to do this so they have something to do, to justify their existence. And if we had such a job, we would do the same. We know this. So, to help them out, even if we don't do things exactly as they plan, we make it look like we do. That's what we do to keep the peace. 

"Did you wipe down that ventilator for 10 minutes?"

"Yep!" Your white lie resonates off your face like a distant echo in an empty canyon, lingering with the unspoken truth—even though you know you did not wipe for 10 minutes.

And it's the same the other way around too. You ask your boss, "Did you talk to the doctors about not ordering COPD education on patients who do not have COPD." 

"Oh, yes I did," Your boss says, her lie resonating off her face like a confident echo in a quiet room, concealing the unspoken truth—even though she knows she didn't address the issue with the doctors. 

And that's fine. That's the way it often goes in the intricate dance of workplace dynamics, where keeping the peace sometimes means navigating through these unspoken agreements.